1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, an image recording method, and an image compressing apparatus, and more particularly, to an image recording apparatus, an image recording method, and an image compressing apparatus capable of compressing a image shot by a shooting component as a moving image or a still image and recording the compressed image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, a digital camera capable of shooting not only a still image but also a moving image is known. In such a digital camera, a still image or a moving image is compressed by a predetermined compressing method (coding method) and recorded on a recording medium such as a memory card.
For example, the JPEG (Joint Photographic coding Experts Group) is widely used as a still image compressing method, and the MPEG (Moving Image coding Experts Group) and the motion JPEG are widely used as a moving image compressing method.
Such digital cameras include a digital camera capable of recording a still image onto a recording medium by performing a predetermined operation during shooting of a moving image and a digital camera capable of reproducing a still image by performing a predetermined operation during reproduction of a moving image (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 11-234624 and 2000-184330).
Some conventional general digital cameras, however, have only one processing system including a compression circuit for compressing an image and a memory for storing image data in consideration of cost. In such digital cameras, in the case of changing the size of an image or the compression ratio during shooting of a moving image and recording a still image onto a recording medium, a problem occurs such that the sequence of a moving image compressing process has to be stopped once and then a process of compressing a still image has to be performed.